To Cowork or not to Cowork

Almost anyone that’s ever bought a home knows that there are many things that go into the final purchase price.

You can find a 4 bedroom home with 1 bathroom in a regular neighborhood or you can find a 4 bedroom home with 6 bathrooms in a luxury neighborhood. The nicer home is going to cost 10 times as much as the basic home, but essentially they provide the same thing, somewhere to come home at night and live.

Within the world of office space the variations have traditionally been much less. Most office buildings looked the same, felt the same and operated the same which is why Coworking has risen to change the marketplace so significantly.Now, you have multiple choices for your business needs.

Traditional but potentially uninspiring space with long term obligations, high upfront move-in costs with little flexibility for growth or change versus flexible, amenity rich locations that remove friction, take care of facility friction and are built around the openness of community and human interaction.

Depending on your business type the questions you need to ask yourself are:

Do you value flexibility for future business changes?

Do you prefer to focus your time on your business rather than facilities?

Do you prefer to keep more cash/liquidity versus capital expenditure?

Do you value working around other businesses and entrepreneurs, recognizing the professional and business growth that can come from those relationships?

Do you want to deal with disaster recovery situations on your own or have a pre-made solution standing by?

Can you afford to commit the time (and cost) to lease negotiations, finding space and the legal fees associated with this?

Do you value employee satisfaction and retention?

What kind of first impression do you want to give to your clients?

When compared in a holistic way, incorporating all the true costs in securing and running your own, traditional space there are simply benefits in traditional space that outweigh the value a professional, large scale coworking space brings.You’ll likely find better, higher class locations with incredible interior design, every amenity you could reasonably think of and amazing operators that care about your success, actually working behind the scenes to help you grow your business.

Complimentary workshops, coaching and mentoring, networking events and mixers all provide great opportunities to build meaningful business friendships while helping your personal growth. Staff members that offer support, helping to connect Members and opportunities while taking care of day to day facilities help keep you focused on your business, creating additional time which is the most valuable commodity of all.

Finally, the flexibility to grow and shrink your space needs in line with your business without penalties means you’ll never be overpaying for space you don’t need, or be stuck in a space that’s too small, with no way out for years to come.

Just be sure to find a reputable, larger scale coworking space that’s more than a glorified coffee shop. Not all coworking spaces are equal!